FLINT, MI — In the auditorium of the United Auto Workers Region 1C office hangs a collection of quilts that tell an important part of the UAW’s history — its very formation — that can be easy to forget.

While the men were in the shops during the Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37, demanding better treatment as workers, the women were also busy.

And the quilts — an art form traditionally known to belong to women — tell their story and commemorate their efforts.

“They’re so cool-looking,” said Steve Dawes, assistant director of UAW Region 1C. “And the meaning behind them, when you look at what women have done in this country, it’s amazing.”

In the mid-1990s, Valerie Clarke heard about the women involved in the Sit-Down Strike, the Women’s Emergency Brigade who called themselves the “Red Berets,” and picketed for the rights of the men in the shop.

Clarke is from New York and as far as she knows has no union family members. But for a time had made Flint her home and had fallen in love with the city. When she heard about these women, she wanted to do something for them.

“I was moved by that story when I was in Flint,” she said.

At the time, Clarke, a quilter and quilt aficionado, was hosting national quilt shows and knew a large number of top-notch quilters. Then she got her idea. She reached out to quilters she knew not just in Flint, but everywhere, wanting to recognize these women.

And women responded.

Clarke wasn’t surprised.

Women making political quits, she said, is nothing new. During the women’s suffrage movement and in wars, women had been expressing their views through one of the few artistic mediums readily available to them: sewing.

“Women had one thing they could use, and that was their sewing,” she said. “I thought this was an extension of what women have always done.”

The quilts came in, and after a Flint exhibition they traveled the country in different shows before they went back to their owners.

Then, in 2011, the 75th anniversary of the Sit-Down Strike, Clarke had all the quilts brought back to Flint for a display at the Flint Public Library. She hung onto them, and after talking with friends, decided they needed a more permanent home.

Mary Whaley is a Flint resident, quilter, and a friend of Clarke’s. While Clarke was in New York, she helped things get organized with the UAW, leading to the quilts being hung in the office 1940 West Atherton Road.

Quilts, like other pieces of art, need care. The UAW had special cases built to protect the quilts while they’re on display.

Whaley said she’s glad to be a part of the project.

“They were women who were the strike supporters and were involved in a lot of the organizing,” she said. “I just think that’s a very significant history that we have, that people stand up for that.”

She hasn’t been to see the quilts yet, but said she’s looking forward to seeing her favorite — one that barely looks like a quilt at all.

“She actually used clothing for the construction, a wool sort of jacket and a face and a red beret hat. It’s more of a sculpture than a quilt,” she said.

Only two of the original quilts aren’t on display. One is in the home of the granddaughter of the woman who made it, and another belongs to the Sloan Museum.

Maxine Farkas said is one of the quilters whose work is on display. Although she lives in Lowell, Mass., she said the story of the Red Berets resonated with her because of the “Mill Girls” who went on strike in Lowell in the 1800s.

“I grew up as a kid listening to a show on the radio called “The Midnight Special,” which was folk music. … Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger. So that the unions to me were a fact of life, and then when Valerie told us this story, we were on an email list, I couldn’t help but think, oh, I have to do something for this.”

Her quilt features the lyrics from a Pete Seeger song: “You can’t scare me, I’m sticking with the union.”

She calls her quilt “not terribly exciting,” but also said she’s glad to know it will have a permanent home in Flint.

“I think it’s absolutely awesome. I think it’s fitting that what is essentially for many years a women’s art form is celebrating women’s contribution to the movement. I think it’s really cool. I really do,” she said.